It looks like I may be playing the Sunday Millions this weekend. I plowed through thirty-six players for the one guaranteed seat and took it down after a little more than two hours. I got to the Final Table with half the average stack and I was kind of surprised at some of the careless play by the Big Stacks at the table. At least two of them could have easily played down to final four players but each of them made really careless mistakes. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of that and I got really lucky when my Pocket Eights hit a Set against Pocket Aces and Nine Ten off-suite.

Heads-up took about thirty minutes as I was facing an extremely aggressive player that had me out chipped three to one. Once I doubled up I felt very confident that if I hit any kind of hand I was gonna get paid off and that is exactly what happened when I hit my straight. I immediately un-registered from the tournament. I am seriously considering playing a large buy-in tournament with far fewer people. This will give me an opportunity to play a Deep Stacks tournament with around 300 to 1000 people depending on which tourney I play.

The Heartland Poker Tour is back again at the Majestic Star casino in Indiana. Once again I will be playing satellites into the Main Event starting July 3rd. Having had some time to reflect on the previous satellites a few months ago I am ready to rock and roll.

I will make a few adjustments in my play and hopefully it will pay off by winning the seat this time and advancing deep into the tournament. I am definitely looking forward to the challenge. The Main Event does start until late July and runs into August so I have plenty of time.

My hot streak continues as I made another Final Table yesterday. My play has been great and my hands are holding up and that is the key. No new changes to my game or anything but the tweaks I made a while back remain in place and very effective.

This tourney started with me doubling up on a flush. After that it was pretty much every time I got my chips in I was doubling up. One guy re-raised me pre-flop while I was holding [A][A] and he had [7][7] and was not about to fold. You gotta love that. These might have been the easiest chips I have ever won to get to a Final Table.

lol

Seriously, the last eighteen players were tough and one in particular was very frustrating because he was both aggressive and sitting to my left. He finally got busted a little later on by the eventual winner. Other than him I pretty much had everyone at my Final Table pegged and they responded accordingly. I kept my stack up by stealing a lot of blinds and abandoned pots.

The last three players were very good. We all had a very good read on each other so no one got too out of line. Finally, with about $110k left I picked up [9][9] in the Big Blind. The button raised me three times. I re-raised all in. I had him covered and he is holding [A][Q].

The flop comes [A][Q][x] [x] [x]

That was the end of me or so I thought. I still had 17k left and mounted a come back up to $120k and back into second place. A few more hands transpired and I pick up [6][6] on the button and raise when the action folds to me. I get re-raised all in by [K][Q] and I insta-called.

I know I gotta win a big race at some point so why not now? If this hand holds I am in excellent chip shape against the chip leader heads-up. I played it to win it!

The flop came [X][X][Q] [X][X]

Off to the rail I go. Overall, I played the tourney well and was rewarded for it. One more race would have helped but that’s how it goes. No regrets.

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I happened to be browsing the web and ran into a really cool site. It’s called the Poker Atlas. If you are looking for a poker game or tournament near you then this is a great site to visit. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on your state and all of your local poker rooms pop up along with a map for directions. Each room has a brief description that pops up on the side bar.

Each listing also gives you the spread at each casino along with the tournament schedule if there is one available. It’s certainly worth exploring if you have the time.

Visit the Poker Atlas

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It looks like when the US government seized the banks operations they also seized the entries into the 2009 WSOP for many of the online qualifiers. Players from both Full Tilt and Pokerstars have complained about difficulty entering the tournaments they won entry into via satellites.

Although not surprising it is disappointing that things have gone this far. The trickery and energy spent devising ways to prevent people from spending their time playing poker is amazing.

Don’t we have bigger fish to fry in Washington? I’m just say’in…

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Yes, Phil Ivey has done it again and won his second bracelet of the 2009  World Series of Poker. This time he won the bracelet in the Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo Event. First Prize was good for $220k+ and another bracelet to add to the legend. Ivey is on more than a tear in this years WSOP. The side bets must be insane! I can only imagine that Ivey bet plenty of money on himself winning a bracelet as usual. Now those bets are paying off big time. The series is just kicking into full swing now so it ought to be an interesting next few weeks with Ivey being this hot.

Lately, things have been going really well for me at the poker table. Over the past week I have made seven Final Tables out of twelve tournaments that I entered. Most of them were 360 players or less but still a nice run nonetheless.

I have tweaked by game a bit and, as I stated a few days ago, it has made a difference in my results and also in my chip stack. Also, I have been accumulating chips even faster than I normally do which has kind of surprised me. I typically win a lot of big pots. However, I have not only been winning my typical big pots but  I am also winning more small pots and abandoned pots than I normally do.

The reason I made the changes was because of what I read in Arnold Snyder’s Poker Tournament Formula 2. By changing how I viewed my chips I have increased my ability to win more pots and go deeper into the Final Table.  It’s not that this information was revolutionary but it definitely gave me a different perspective to view things from and that is the difference in my game.

Yes, Phil Ivey just won his sixth World Series of Poker bracelet. Ivey beat out Tony G and Layne Flack to take down the $98,000 First Place prize. Ivey is still hungry for a break through in the Main Event after the brutal beat he took when Chris Moneymaker busted him in 2003.

As usual if Ivey accumulates a bunch of chips early he will be extremely difficult to deal with. We still have a ways to go before the Main Event so I suspect Ivey will be at a few other Final Tables before that time comes.

Are you looking for ways to get that seat in the Main Event without spending a fortune? If you are like me you probably spend a lot of time playing live and online satellites. Nothing wrong with that and its probably the cheapest and fastest way to win a seat into one of the big poker tournaments. However, there may be an option to win your seat right in front of your face. If you happen to have a regular group of poker buddies that likes to play each week you can organize and send your own player to the Main Event. Poker Team Bankroll allows a regular group / team of poker players to pool their money together over a period of time and allow one or more players to buy-in to a big tournament.

Just create your team on the PTB site and each individual will be allowed to log-in to keep track of the overall bankroll and win percentages. Once your team has reached it’s buy-in goal the player that has accumulated the most points through tournament finishes will be awarded the buy-in to the larger tournament. Everyone else is paid according to their tournament points throughout the weekly tournaments. So even if you do not get to play in the tournament you definitely get to benefit if your player cashes.
Check out Poker Team Bankroll here!.

The largest gathering of poker players in the world has begun. The World Series of Poker continues to be the biggest event poker players attend each year. The fields have grown to record levels and their are fewer and fewer fish each year. The tournament has changed so much in the past six years. We added the $50,000 Championship H.O.R.S.E. event and taken away the Re-Buy tournaments, at least for the time being.

The players have gotten better too. So many new names have popped up since Moneymaker won it all in 2003. Guys like Greg Raymer, Peter Eastgate, Jaime Gold, and Joe Hachem. True, these guys were doing well before winning the big one but it still shows the popularity of tournament poker. The WSOP Main Event still has a luster about it. It’s intriguing to just about anyone that plays the game. We all would love to be at that Final Table and win it all. Just to be King for a day, what a wonderful feeling that would be.

It’s not too late though so keep plugging away at those satellites. You may win your seat yet!

Over the past two weeks I have been playing nothing but satellites to the WSOP Main Event. All of them are freerolls on Full Tilt and Pokerstars. I still have not won the seat yet but I have been awfully close several times already. I figure if I simply get enough numbers eventually I will hit it. The easiest way is to play on Pokerstars because they have only one preliminary satellite before you actually play for the seat. Full Tilt has two preliminary tournaments where you must win First or Second to advance. Once you get to the actual Super Satellite for the Main Event seat they award eight seats to the winners.

It seems like every time I turn around another freeroll tot he WSOP Main Event is popping up. Even Facebook jumped into the fray. Every major poker site has a freeroll of some kind to get you to the big tournament. This year I figure there will be even fewer players than last year as the economy continues to take a bite out of bankrolls around the globe.

On the other hand the play in these freerolls can be pretty wild so don’t expect people to fold flush draws early because it’s not going to happen. I have made the semi-finals on Full Tilt twice now and even in that tournament the play was still very loose almost all the way to the Final Table. So play your premium hands strong and forget about value betting unless you have the absolute nutz!